Sure, Mark Wahlberg could use some more friends. But at least for now he's got the right friends.

The actor's new male-bonding HBO series, Entourage, reportedly is looking at a second-season renewal, despite an underwhelming first-season premiere.

The half-hour comedy, executive produced by Wahlberg and featuring Adrian Grenier as a Wahlberg-esque, posse-boasting movie star, premiered Sunday night before 1.9 million Hollywood-curious types, Nielsen Media Research said.

That viewership number was nearly half of what its lead-in, Six Feet Under (3.7 million), dug up for the pay cable network.

Still, the Hollywood Reporter says HBO is sold on Entourage, which bowed to solid reviews. The network likely will announce this week that it's picked up the show for a second year, the trade paper said.

Elsewhere in the TV week ended Sunday:

Baseball was a big hit for ESPN and Fox. Monday's home-run derby competition at the 75th all-star game was watched by 7.7 million on ESPN--the most watched basic-cable show. Tuesday's game, something of a home-run derby itself, was checked out by 14 million on Fox--the most watched broadcast network show.
The 2004 ESPY Awards was a solo smash for ESPN. The meet-and-mingle event for stars and jocks was telecast Sunday night, drawing 3.2 million viewers, up a cool million from last year.
The two-hour series premiere of Sci Fi Channel's Stargate Atlantis, the Stargate SG-1 spinoff, was checked out by 4.2 million--the biggest audience ever for a Sci Fi series.
The season-finale of Bravo's Blow Out puffed up with 1.1 million viewers--the best numbers yet for the cable series' hair-raising reality adventures.
CBS' Amazing Race 5 sprinted ahead as the week's most-watched reality series--11th place among all broadcast network shows, 10.5 million.
ABC almost--almost--cracked the top 10 with a show not named Monday Night Football, thanks to a fresh episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (12th place, 10.3 million).
ABC saw another glimmer of hope with the premiere of the teen-centric family series, The Days (36th place, 6.5 million)--the best numbers of the summer for a new broadcast network drama.
Friday's ABC 20/20 interview with Martha Stewart, taped shortly after the Nelson Mandela-admiring domestic technician was sentenced to five months in prison (only 26 years and seven months less than Mandela), was witnessed by 8 million good-living devotees (23rd place).
Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie did their thing again with The Simple Life 2 (18th place, 9 million)--the week's fifth-biggest hit among younger viewers. (Stodgy ol' baseball, by the way, was the week's biggest hit with the young'uns.)
NBC got an okay return for its investment with the fourth-season debut of For Love or Money--30th place, 7.3 million.
CBS' Big Brother 5 was strong on Thursday (20th place, 8.8 million), strong on Tuesday (21st place, 8.6 million), and just plain weak on Saturday (68th place, 4.9 million).
ABC's midseason bomb Kingdom Hospital finally checked out with a two-hour episode attended to by 3.7 million (84th place).
Overall, rerun-a-rific CBS was the most watched network among all viewers (averaging 8.9 million) and demographically desirable ones aged 18-to-49.

NBC ran second in viewers (6.7 million) and third in youngsters. Boosted by baseball, Fox perked up to second among likely consumers of tooth-whitening strips, but could no better than third in total viewers (6.2 million).

ABC could just plain do no better--fourth in young viewers, fourth in total viewers (5.5 million).

UPN topped the WB, 2.6 million to 2.2 million.

Here's a rundown of the 10 most watched prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research: